Texas, Our Texas! So Wonderful, So Great!

 courtesy of flickr

Ah, hello my reader loves!

It's been a while, and for that I apologize, but the last three weeks have been jam-packed with the pure awesomeness that is Christmas, Family, Friends, and, of course, TEXAS.

Wow, I so did not want that time to end.  It was wonderful being home in that great state, and being surrounded by my wonderful family and my dear, dear friends was the best Christmas present ever.  I certainly missed my FT friends, though - y'all are definitely dear to my heart...sorry, can't be helped  :)

The break got off to a wonderful start in Arlington with the fam, Jake, friends, and some good ol' music - Hamilton style.  I love music nights with the Hamiltons - so great.

It was a huge blessing to get to spend some time with a few of my girls from BSLC - I miss those precious daughters, and it was wonderful to get to sit and spend some one-on-one time with them, simply listening to what life has looked like for them over the last semester.  Having that time and listening to everything that's been going on with them did make me a touch bitter that I can't be around to walk this part of life with them.  I want so badly to be there to pour into their precious hearts in person...it's just not the same from this far away.  But they are growing up into beautiful daughters of the King - I only hope I get to continue to be a small part of their lives.

Spending time with a few of my ladies from high school was incredible as well - I so miss those girls, and I'm sad I didn't get to spend more time with them and that I didn't get to make it around to everyone there in Arlington - time is SO fleeting!

Christmas was small and quiet, but it was such a huge blessing to get to have Momma home for Christmas Eve and Christmas Day!!  It's been a while since we've been afforded that privilege.  Christmas dinner was chill, but it was nice to be able to spend it with Mr. Teasley - he's been such a blessing to our family and we were blessed to be able to share the day with him.

From there it was on to the Great Texas Tour - December 2010!!  Jake and I hit the road from Arlington to Lufkin to spend some awesome time with Kristen and B - those three taught me how to shoot, y'all!  I shot Kristen's shotgun and pistol and B's pistol as well.  Jake had a revolver (I think..?) that kinda terrified me...I'll work my way up to that one  ;)  I didn't hit any of the clay disks with the shotgun, but I did hit the target with the pistol!  I'll get those clays next time!

After Lufkin we hit up Huntsville to spend some time with Jake's sweet parents - Mom and Pop Pry, thank you SO much for welcoming me so warmly into your home.  I had so much fun just sitting and visiting with y'all and I can't wait to see your sweet faces again!!  Pop - that fire was epic and I can't wait to sit around more of those chatting with you and listening to your stories and the latest celebrity news ;)  Mom - can't wait to play in that kitchen with you!!

From Huntsville we stopped in CS to hit up Fuego, and coffee shops - super lame that all the good ones were closed for the break, though.  It was nice to get to visit with the Humphrey and Freeman families, too - I so miss y'all!  Girl time with Ricci and Alyssa was such a blessing...I miss that.  Jake and I had a blast hanging out with Kristen and Aaron before making our way down to Houston.  Fuego round 2 and then hitting up Christmas in the Park was sooo so fun.  I was amazed that after 5 winters in CS I had never managed to make it to Christmas in the Park...I feel gypped, just sayin'.  But, it was way fun to experience it with a few of my absolute favorite peoples  :)

Christmas in the Park was a lovely send-off as Jake and I undertook the next leg of our tour: Houston!  We were incredibly blessed to be able to spend time with Chris and Jennah at their rockin' new house - well done, you two!  Can't wait to see how y'all continue to make it into your own.  We had so much fun there, and watching Jake and Chris together, oh man...so fun.  They are definitely brothers who love each other a whole, whole lot.  Love it!

We rang in the New Year with Kacy and Justin, complete with some Just Dance 2, of course!  I should have known that Kacy, the dancing queen, was going to force us to dance with her - I'll admit that it was pretty fun...quite a workout, too!  I was suuuuper sore the next day...a touch pathetic.  It was nice to close the night with some fireworks watching around the neighborhood - well done, Cypress  :)  We started 2011 off marvelously with lunch with Chris & Jennah and Kacy & Justin, followed by some girl time with Kacy (Barnes & Noble + Target...of course!) and the guys crashed at the house.  It was so, so great to spend that time with you, Kacy, love.  I miss your face!!

From Houston we made our way to the Austin-Round Rock Area to see Patrick & Sarah and little Zach, who isn't quite so little anymore!  I canNOT believe how much that munchkin has grown since August!!  I'm gonna need him to slow them horses down!  We also got to visit with Miss Awyssa for a bit which was way fun...her parents loved talking to Jake about Africa...we admittedly abandoned him to go chat outside while they asked him question after question...in our defense we did tell him we were going outside...  To close Austin we made our way over to the Ponder home for a lovely dinner and some Mexican Train and all-around wonderful hangout time.  They certainly have done a wonderful job of pulling that home together so quickly - I. Am. Impressed!  We definitely loved our time in the Austin are - miss y'all so, so much!

After that we stopped back in CS for some final rounds at SRPH, the Heep, and BioControl...Jake had to see his A&M peeps and I had to see mine - it was super awesome meeting his old crew and introducing him to some of my favorite people from the ENTO world.  We closed out the day with some Fuego (are you noticing a trend here?) with the Stanfields and a quick visit with Kristen and Aaron before making our way back to Huntsville for some more time with Jake's fam.

I was so glad that I was able to go back to Huntsville to visit with the Pry family some more before Jake and I had to begrudgingly go our separate ways at the close of our break.  I love being around his family.  It's fun and feels like home.  I miss y'all!!

Then it was time to head to the IAH and send Jake back to Africa...one of the most difficult things I've ever had to do.  Standing there completely helpless as we watched him disappear as he turned the corner to head to his gate was awful.  That's a kind of helplessness that I can't really explain, other than: it was horrible and I never want to experience that again.  Sadly, life is full of goodbyes, and I reckon I should be grateful for the ones that, God willing, aren't forever.  While knowing that we won't see each other for a good 7 months feels like an eternity we are resting in faith that God will bring us safely together again come summer time.  I will say this, though: it was an incredible blessing to be able to stand next to Jake's family at the airport (we missed you, Jennah!) and having B, Kristen, and T there to help distract me was wonderful.

After sending Jake off and drying the tears B, Kristen, and T and I met up with Brandon for some way fun times...Chuy's + hangin' around a park with pretty skies, swings, and cameras = a pretty awesome day.  We got to snag a quick visit with Kelly at the Outlet Mall on our way back to CS, as well.  It ended up being a bearable day  :)

I spent my last day in CS wonderfully (though I missed far too many of you): lunch with the Wharton's and my Ginger girl, hanging at the Health Sci Center with T, B, and Kristen, complete with a brief, yet wonderful visit with my bestie Ricci (miss you so much, lovely!!), dinner at Layne's with Mak, and finally a mini road trip to Waco with B, T, Kirsten, and Bean.  Before the J-Man and his buddies picked me up to make the rest of the trek up to Arlington we roadtrippers from CS dined at the Claypot there in Waco and were blessed to be joined by the wonderful Mal (great catching up with you, lady!!).  Good food, great state, even better company!  Finally said farewell to my loves and hopped in the car with Panda, Harrison, and Jimmy.  We had a rather...eventful trip home...I'm just sayin', if you have to pee around Grandview...wait until you get to the Grandy's in Alvarado...it will save you from banging on gas station doors, Subway doors, and finally running off to a field only to be followed by a state trooper car that will appear from out of no where and will definitely proceed to run it's lights and shine the spotlight on you as you do your business...BUT!  If you just so happen to be an Eagle Scout and have your card on (along with your license) you just might get off with a stern talking to and the advice that the Grandy's up the way is open 'til 4am or so.  Yeps, that happened...thank you Jimmy for providing us with our entertainment for the night  :)

I got to spend the last two days at home with Momma and the boys (Faja is still in Cali with the fam out there).  Sadly, we had to send Fariz off to Chicago for his Cavaliers audition thingy - he should be back home now - and Mom had to work on Saturday and Josh had a zombie party dealio, bummer  :(  But I loved getting to spend Friday with Momma talking about fun things and telling her about my post-Christmas adventures.

I so love my family!!  I miss y'all terribly, terribly!

For those of you who I wasn't able to catch during my time over the holidays: (1) Please forgive me, (2) COME VISIT ME!!!!  :)

Well, I head back to the lab starting tomorrow.  I took today to recoup and settle back into living in the Frozen Tundra and putting my apartment back in order.  BigBoy decided to lay claim to a number of things while I was gone...including the couch...both cushions, neeeeeat.  Oh how lucky that cat is that I fell in love with him in 7th grade ;)  I will say that I hadn't realized how much I miss having him curl up next to me at night until not having him there for 3 weeks...it was nice to have a snuggle buddy again.

Praying you all had a wonderfully blessed Christmas and New Year celebration.

I'll keep y'all posted on how grad school semester 2 goes!

Shalom, love, blessings!
~MW

P.S. - it came to my attention during our travels that there are quite a few of you who read the blog but have never made your presence known!  I'd love to hear from y'all on here!  Let me know when you're around the site  :)

Happy....Monday?

Yes, indeed!! Today is definitely off to a great start. Saw the boys off to school (Daddy-o said he would take them today), visited with the Momma over a lovely cup of coffee, and here I am, with the entire day in front of me! Errands, prepare to be run! Books, prepare to be read! Yeah! {complete with fist pump}

Oh yes, today will be a good day. Dreary as it is. Yes, I did just show dislike for a dreary day...I'm officially ready for spring. I'm desperately longing for those crisp sunny days that are so perfectly divine for frolicking around in the great outdoors. Soon :)

Well, as most of you have probably come to realize, when I go to CS for a week or so I'm the absolute worst blogger, ever. I know, I know, I really need to get my priorities in check...working on it! But really, can you blame me? I mean, the people that I allow to pull me away from the internets are ridiculously amaAaAaAazing!! You would drop everything else if you had the opportunity to play with them, too. Promise.

My travels started off with a roadtrip to see SKate with CarrieHammie and Catia. After staying up til, oh 3:30AM or so we made an appearance at Sherwood Forest - oh the peoples we saw... Never imagined I would lay my eyes upon a centaur named Larry. Yep, that happened. It was fun times. We were all ridiculously exhausted from pretending like we were back in high school and getting something like 4hrs of sleep before spending a day strolling around the Forest, but you know, we made it through.

From there I scurried on over to CS for a week of visiting with my college loves...and working in the laaaab. Both facets of the week were awesome. I decided I can "sleep when I'm dead" so I stayed up crazy late every night trying to squeeze every ounce of visit time with my peeps that I possibly could...paying for that now, but it was totally worth it! And, we were super productive at the lab! Got tons of pics taken and we made some huge progress on the egg stats! WHOOP! Um....we are thinking we can have a rough copy ready to send off for peer review by the end of this week - oh yes, it is finally happening! Publication, here we come!!!!!! Oh! I also tested my hand at tennis this week...for the first time ever. It was way fun! Though I really need to work on my aim...the first ball I hit flew about 3 courts over to the left....woops! Haha, yeah, I was totally that person. But, I can't wait to volley around again. So fun! Doubles was fun to play too. While experiencing tennis I got to make a new friend, too! She's an old friend of B's and she was passing through CS on her way home. Can't wait to continue building up our new friendship. She's totally awesome and has an amazing life story. Hooray for new friends!

The week was just straight-up awesome. That's all there is to it.

And, what made it all even better was this: I got to visit with my darling, darling Ponders!!!! Oh, it was glorious to spend the weekend with them. I miss them so terribly. Moving to MN is gonna suck :( But! It's not forever!! :D

So, guess what?! This week I get to sub Tues-Fri for the 7th/8th grade teacher at PCA! Hooray!! I'm terrified out of my mind!!! Haha. I'm super excited about it, but quite nervous, to be completely honest. I've never taught in a classroom setting, so this should be interesting. But, ya gotta start somewhere, am I right?! I'm sure I will have LOTS of fun stories to grace your eyes with this week - be looking for them starting tomorrow evening.

I'm also going to try and get some hard, on paper plans drawn up for my mommy's garden! I'm excited. As is she. We talked about some ideas I have, many of which were influenced by Mr. Powell. Should be fun! I'll throw something up, at some point, for y'all kids to take a gander at.

And, with that, I am off to go run those errands and get to being productive today :D

Shalom!
~MW

EDIT: OMG!!!! GPISD just emailed me and said they want me to be a sub for them, too! Now I just need to go get fingerprinted and go to an orientation in April!!!!!!!!!!! Hooray! (I mean, April is a ways off, but still - GPISD has a bit of rougher crowd of kids, and, in all seriousness, that's totally where I want to be!)

HELLOOOO, Friday!

Ah, Friday is here, yet again! Glorious, isn't it?

I am ridiculously excited about this weekend...and upcoming week!

Come this evening I will be on the road to the San Marcos area with CarrieHammie and Catia to see SKate! We will be making an appearance at the recently transplanted Sherwood Forest...oh, yes, you read that correctly. Sherwood Forest has been transplanted to just outside Austin, TX, and we are going to play in it!! Should be loads of fun and I absolutely cannot wait to see SKate and her new digs!

From there I get to go back to CS!! WHOOP!! I am seriously beside myself with excitement to see everyone again and get some more work done in the lab. We are getting closer and closer to being finished with manuscript number one!!!! I hope we can at least get it accepted by a journal by the time I head off to grad school.

But, from CS I'm off to RR to see Elaine&Josh!!!!!!! It has seriously been TOO long. Ok, so maybe it's only been about 2 months since I've seen them, but still...that is too long. That's just all there is to it.

All of the above will make for a lovely start to my March :) I absolutely, absolutely love all of the amazing people I will get to see almost too much for my own good...but I don't care. They have all been there for me time and time again, through thick and thin...and I would seriously be so far gone without them.

I know I say this a lot, but I truly have been so blessed and smiled upon by God to have all of those amazing people in my life. I can't imagine continuing through life without them by my side...whether we are near or far apart. They are simply the best of the best. And yes, I hereby grant you permission to be jealous of my friends ;)

As much as I might complain about being back in Arlington and having nothing to do right now, it has really been a blessing, because it has allowed me to focus on staying in or getting back in touch with the people who are most dear to me. Friends from high school, friends from college (still weird to say "from college"), family, etc. Huge, huge blessing. I know I won't be able to talk to as many people on a regular basis once grad school starts, so this time now has been perfect.

So, I wanted to touch on a few other things in this post, but my morning is quickly coming to a close and I really need to get a move on with laundry and packing and errands before I hit the road tonight. So, for now, my loves, I must close.

Wishing you the best of weekends!
Shalom!
~MW

I'm still alive!

Ok lovelies, I know I have been M.I.A. for forever. My bad.... I was busy... Alright, so I may have taken the last week off from blogging, just because I could. Lame? Maybe, but I'm back now!

I know some of you are still patiently waiting for my post on resolutions, but I kind of have a problem: I may or may not have misplaced my notes from that Sunday because I managed to forget my journal that morning so I took my notes on a piece of scratch paper, which I cannot find. So, until they post the sermon or I corner Chaplain Willis and beg him for his notes, I'm stuck with trying to remember everything I wanted to remember on my own - it's going to take a bit of time.

Now, for some updates!

So, what have I been up top that has been keeping me from you?? Well...For starters I got to spend the whole week with the lovely Alyssa down in C-Stat. We celebrated her belated bday on Saturday - oh, it was lovely. We definitely made some awesome memories this week. Aside from hanging with Alyssa I was working in the lab with Dr. Wharton and Aubs. Made some progress with some stuff that needed to be finished up, took some pictures of some wasps, you know, the usual. I had lots of lunches with peoples, LOTS of coffee dates...oh my gosh, I think I drank more coffee last week than ever before...oh, no, that's a lie, actually - the most coffee I have ever had in a week was during finals this past semester...that was a lot of coffee. Went to some movies, etc. It was great to get to hang with BMetz and KZhaurova and Aubs - I have missed my bug dorks. Oh my goodness, Friday night was ridiculous: after a lovely dinner with the Humphreys and some quality YouTube perusing, Alyssa and B and I went over to Cam's for some classic signs followed by hide and go seek in the dark...yes, you read that correctly. Alyssa and I were up til about 3:30am...we felt SO OLD!! Haha, it was sad. We experienced a few of those "we aren't in college anymore" moments, too. But it was great fun, and we slept well that night. It was a huge blessing to get to attend worship at Living Hope the last two Sundays as well - and my quality time with the Humphreys followed by quality time with B this Sunday before I hit the road back to A-town was absolutely wonderful. Basically, I had an awesome week. I cannot wait to go back for another of week of work and visiting.

I will say this, though: it was a very odd feeling to be back in C-Stat and not be a student. Alyssa and I talked about this feeling a bit and how it is so strange that it sets in almost over-night. You, know...that feeling of not being in college anymore, but not exactly starting that next stage of your life. There are lots of names for it: time of waiting, limbo, in-between...I'm calling it my intermission. It really is just that to me. The drama that is my life isn't over yet, but it's time to take a little break and stretch my legs...err, brain...get a little snack, etc. It's weird and has its ups and downs, but I am excited to see what growing comes out of this time that God has graced me with. Because really, I am very fortunate to have this opportunity to simply be.

Well, all, it is time to get things really rolling...taking the wee ones to see The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus around 2 - should be good!

Happy Tuesday.

Shalom,
~MW